The Second Kessler
by UnitedDinmarkOreo's Books
Summary: My name was Aiden. Now, in inFAMOUS, it's Ash. Except inFAMOUS isn't a fun game anymore. It's real life. And I'm a Conduit with powers beyond imagination. There's a new threat out there now. The First Sons have returned. Delsin will help me fight, but we won't be enough. DARPA & GOLIATH are more threats. And there's no way we can win. In this world... death is no longer the end.
1. The Bird & The Alumni

**(Cover Photo made by your's truly) This is my first Infamous fanfiction but I'm a huge fan of the franchise. I've played every single game on both good and evil mode (but I prefer good). I can see this story going far… and when I say 'far', I mean FAR! Like waaay over thirty chapters ((maybe split into a series of fanfics)) but I'm definitely going to lose motivation if you guys don't read & review, so go ahead; even if you don't like it, at least review and say why not. This chapter starts off a _bit_ slow but it'll start to get to a climax towards the end and it's rated T, because there's going to be some more violence (and maybe romance?) in later chapters.**

**Thanx and PEACE!  
Oreo**

* * *

About two years ago, I was just a normal 16-year-old. My name was Aiden McKinney; I went to school, got detentions, played football, watched T.V, crushed on fit girls and exhausted my PS4 every now-and-then. I dreamt of leaving cold, gray London behind and moving to New York when I got older and I wanted to be a millionaire. Seriously, life didn't get much more normal and naive. Man, I even look pretty ordinary - pale skin, blonde hair that was sticks up so much that I just keep a buzz-cut and normal blue eyes that impresses nobody. No, there was nothing extraordinarily special about me at all. But the universe must work in mysterious ways because it chose me for this crazy adventure when it _easily_ could have chosen someone like, I dunno... Bear Grylls or someone. God, coincidences are shitty.

I guess my story actually starts at the end of (surprise, surprise!) an ordinary school-day when the sun just about managed to peek out of the sky, even though it was a traditional London winter when that biased ball of fire usually takes a 3-month nap. I was walking the ten blocks between school and home when I took the stupid decision to enjoy the sudden burst of sunshine. So I took a slightly longer route which cut through the park. Well that's what everyone _calls_ it. It's more of a medium-sized field with a few trees dotted here-and-there and a stone path that forked into two more at the centre and led to a couple more rusty entrances (or exits) which were actually just gaps in the flaky, dented fence that surrounded the 'park'. Nevertheless there were always a few people there whatever the time or weather, their reasons ranging from wanting a short game of footy to dealing drugs - usually ecstasy, but heroine and sometimes even cocaine was sold. So, naturally, our parents told us not to go near the place and, naturally, we ignored them. Well, now I wish I listened to just that one instruction, it would've saved me from going through all this crap.

So, I was walking down the pathway, I didn't take a more direct route through the grass because yesterday's rain had made the it all muddy and I was wearing the Converses that I had just bought the day before. I had nearly reached the exit when I heard an ear-splitting screech behind me. I turned around slowly, not sure what to expect and I came face to face with the most bizarre little bird I had ever seen. It was perched on a low hanging branch of the closest tree and was staring right at me. It was about the size of my hand but the strange thing was its feathers, its left side was pure-white and was kinda glowing and on the right it was blood-red. The colours definitely didn't look natural, it must've have been painted or something... but what kind of sicko would do something like that to a bird? It did look similar though, but I just couldn't place my finger on where I had seen something like it before. It cocked its head to the side, still staring at me, and blinked. And with that it spread its wings, did a little hop and fluttered towards me. I took a few steps back expecting it to fly off but it still came towards me.

"Shoo!" I said, waving a hand towards it, this seemed to work because it flew upwards a bit, so I turned around and walked away - silently saying goodbye to the bizarre bird, but it seemed that it didn't want to say goodbye to me... "Ow!" I felt a sharp pain at the back of my neck and felt something warm leak down to my collar. I turned around to see what had hit me and I was greeted, once again, with the little bird on the same branch. Except this time there was something different about it. I didn't notice until it cocked its head once again and a drop of red liquid fell from its beak. Blood. I looked at where the drop had landed and realised that it had _bit_e. "Son-of-a..." but then it flew towards me; it was so fast that I didn't even notice that it had moved. It bit me again - this time on my hand - when I tried to swat it away.

And that was it really. That's how I ended up in the Playstation version of Seattle! I know... _such_ an action-packed story, right? But honestly that's all I remember; the bird biting (or pecking?) me twice and then, next thing I know, I'm sitting on a metal bench on the edge of a pavement. Well, considering I'm in America now, I should call it a 'side-walk'. People are walking past; minding their own business and I'm wondering what the hell was going on, where I was but mostly; how the hell I got here. My eyes were darting all over the place as I was trying to make sense of everything. I was sure that I was still in London at least, _where else could I be?_

An obese blonde woman, around 25-years-old, walked past with a large German shepherd, probably the tenth person that had walked past, and I approached her:  
"Urmm, hi… I'm a bit lost… can you tell me where I am?" I asked. She looked at me for a few seconds, realising I wasn't messing about and replied in an American accent.  
"Harrison Street, just off 5th Avenue." And of course this meant nothing to me, except that either she was messing with me or that I was in a part of London that I didn't know about. She could tell that I was confused, probably by the look on my face. "Land-marks usually help." She said, motioning behind me with her head. I turned around and saw a tall, weirdly shaped building. It took me a few seconds to register that I was staring at the Space Needle. And a few more seconds just to process that.

"No way..." I mumbled, "Seattle..." I turned back around, but the lady had gone pretty far away. I could just make out the bold writing at the back of her black hoodie, something I hadn't noticed before; '_Seattle U Alumni'._ "Yup… Seattle."


	2. The Blast

**Oh, by the way, I don't own inFAMOUS, that belongs to SuckerPunch. I forgot to mention in the first chapter but better late than never!**

* * *

I thought I was dreaming at the start. But I don't dream in all five senses and this felt _way_ too real. Even so, the last thing I thought was that I wasn't even on the same world. I don't even know how it works. This world, where the events of the inFAMOUS games are real, must be in a parallel universe or something. Or maybe I watch too much Doctor Who. Either way, I only realised _exactly _where I was when I saw the DUPs

They came running down the road in a group of six, all fully clad in black and yellow body armour and armed with assault rifles. At first I thought that they were some sort of riot police or SWAT officers but then one of them turned around to fire his gun at a parked car and I saw 'D.U.P' in big white letters between his shoulders.

"No _fucking _way..." I said to myself not believing what I had just seen. But I couldn't deny what happened next. Black and orange streaks, followed by a trail of smoke, flew out of the car window and zipped towards the DUPs They twirled around the six armed men and didn't seem even slightly affected by the spray of bullets coming out of all six guns. Then the streaks came together and a man, wearing a leather jacket and a red hat, grabbed the closest Dupe and slammed him to the ground; knocking the wind out of him and keeping him stuck on the road with a thick cloud of smoke and ash. Delsin Rowe. Holy shit.

He lifted both hands and sent a wide blast of smoke blasted the other five backwards. Before they could recover, Delsin turned into a trail of smoke, once again, and sped to two dupes - managing to subdue them both. Three down, three to go. Well, that is if you don't count the two more rushing towards the scene. And I was just watching, wide eyed and open mouthed as Delsin shot three compact smoke bullets towards the original dupes which pinned all three to the ground, knocking them out at the same time. But Delsin had his back towards the reinforcements and still hadn't noticed that they were there until they stopped running, drew shot-guns from their belts and shot him straight in the back. The strength of the two shots sent Delsin flying towards the same car that he had first appeared.

I tried to run, tried to take cover but my legs just refused to budge. I just stood and stared at the guy whose head had just crashed through the cars window. I watched him get up, shrug off two deadly shot-gun blasts, turn around and wink at the two dupes. But these guys weren't a hundred percent ordinary either. They crouched down and a yellowy light appeared at their feet. When they jumped, two twisting concrete pillars launched them high into the air and they landed on top of a building. Delsin glanced back at the car, now broken and dented, and smiled at the sight of purple neon lights underneath it.

"Time for a little change of style," he smirked, extending a hand towards the lights. Glowing streaks drained out of the neon lights and floated towards his arm. Delsin absorbed the energy and used it to encase his body in neon, he then ran towards the building, leaving an impressive trail of pink and blue light behind him. When he reached it, he didn't stop or even slow down. No, what's the point? Gravity's over-rated anyway. Instead he ran _up_ the side of the building and zipped towards the dupes, wrapping them up in harmless lasers with ease. They didn't even know what had happened until they were fused to the ground.

Delsin jumped back down from the building and landed without even bending his knees.  
"Dude, you're still standing here?" he said, looking at me with a smirk "Helooo?" he was waving his hand in front of my face.  
_Wait, is he talking to me?_  
"Dude, are you alright?" I definitely wasn't 'alright'. I had just witnessed a PLAY-STATION GAME CHARACTER use crazy-ass POWERS to subdue a team of special ops belonging to a FICTIONAL government organization.  
_I've gone mental...  
_"WATCH OUT!" Delsin shouted as something hit my cheek and the left side of my face exploded in pain. Next thing I know, there's a flash of neon and we're both crouching behind a chest high brick wall that had 'Fuck DUP ' plastered all over in white paint. He took one look at me and fumbled around all of his pockets (and yeah, there were quite a lot of them). He produced some sort of thick bandage and pressed it onto my cheek.

"Wait here..." he said to me, "And keep some pressure on that." I raised my hand to keep the bandage in place and that's when my finger brushed past his hand. It was a small, insignificant contact. But the consequence was explosive. Literally. As soon as our skin touched, there was a blinding flash of white and blue light. It was a silent explosion; there was no sound at all. And then everything went black.

I woke up in a small bedroom. The bed had a thin mattress and there was a chest of drawers with a shaving mirror on top and a small window, nothing else in the room except the white-washed door. I got up from the bed, expecting some sort of head-ache or something but everything was normal, I was wearing the same clothes I was wearing before.  
_What a dream!  
_Because obviously it could only have been a dream. Except... That didn't explain where I was. What was this place? I glanced out of the window and noticed that the sky was orange. How long was I asleep? But then I saw a huge building, funnily shaped and...  
_Not a dream then._


	3. Ice, Baby

So... here I am... two days later. And I'm just about coming to terms with what is going on. The delicious scrambled eggs help. And the cook who made them. Who knew that eggs are best cooked with lasers? Right now I'm sitting on a small leather sofa (couch, WHATEVER!) and I'm eating breakfast that was cooked by [yep, you guessed it] the one and only Abigail 'Fetch' Walker. She's wearing a navy tanktop and matching jeans but what is more noticeable and eye-catching is her fiery pink hair and a new addition to her normal attire; a necklace and bracelets made from neon energy. The neon jewellery kept changing colour which was a bit strange considering that when I played inFAMOUS Second Son, neon was always a pinky colour. But when I asked, she explained to me that she's developed her powers almost to their limit and that she can now control the colour of her power amongst other things which she said she'd show me later but she was too tired right now and just wanted to sit down and watch T.V.

I haven't met Delsin yet but Fetch said that he's really busy nowadays, cleaning the streets up of the DUP, and he doesn't really have time to stay at 'The House'. That's what they call this cozy three-storey mansion ... I know, it's an _amazingly_ imaginative name right? Conduits are allowed to come here if they need a place to stay but it's only been me and Fetch since the day I woke up in that bedroom and Fetch says that she reckons I'm a Conduit because of what had happened by the Space Needle. In fact it hadn't even been near that building; apparently Delsin had used lightspeed to transport the two of us far away. But when we had touched, there was a huge explosion that flattened a whole block and Fetch said it was unlike anything she had ever seen; it was kind of like a blue and white, electrical-looking sphere, she had said. No one had been hurt in the explosion because the block had long since been abandoned but the wreckage was devastating and police (the honest kind, not DUPs) had cordoned off the entire place. The way Fetch described it was scary but what was most terrifying about it was that her description matched 'The Blast' that had happened in the first inFAMOUS game. And the result of _that_ explosion was that Cole MacGrath obtained powers. Fetch told me that Delsin had been unaffected by the blast, he was only unconscious for a few hours, whereas I had been knocked out for over a day. But, _if_ the two blasts were the same sort of things then at least one of us would have been affected by it, and if it wasn't Delsin, then...

"Hey, Ash, you alright?" Fetch asked me. When I first woke up and found Fetch, she asked me what my name was. For some reason I thought it would somehow be safer if I didn't tell her my real name and the first thing that came to my head was 'Ashton', which is my Dad's name. Of course, I couldn't go back on that now, even though I wanted to; it'd just be too suspicious, I guess.

"Oh... yeah" I said, "Just lost in thought, Abi." Her eyes opened wide and she turned her head slowly in my direction.

"Call me 'Abi' again, kid, and you'll find out what happens when _laser-_eye-surgery goes wrong." She threatened, trying to keep her face menacing but ended up smiling at me.

"Okay... Abi," I replied, also smiling, "Anyways, I left the bath running," I added, just remembering that I wanted a bath. The tub was almost full when I walked in, so I closed the tap and tested the water by putting my hand in. It was ice-cold. "What the hell?" I looked down and the bathtub and saw that the water had started to freeze over. I yanked my hand out of the water and it slowly went back to liquid. Again I put my hand back into the water and, sure enough, it started to slowly freeze over again. This time I kept my hand there until all the water turned to ice. Then I realised that my hand was now trapped inside. "Great" I sighed. Except... even though my hand was stuck in the middle of a 2-foot block of ice, it didn't feel very secure. _Maybe if I could..._ I yanked my hand out of the bathtub and half of the ice came as well making a sound similar to glass breaking. Shards of ice littered the floor, "Fetch!" I called. I heard a burst of sound that accompanies her neon power and then a knock on the door.

"Yeah? I heard something break, is everything okay in there?" She asked

"Urmm. No" I replied uncertainly, "Come in, you need to see this" I walked over to the door and unlocked it. Fetch walked in.

"What's up?" The pink-haired girl asked. Then she noticed all the ice, "What the hell happened?"

"I just... put my hand in" I stared at my hand and saw that a white energy kept flickering across my skin every few seconds. So the blast was the same sort of thing that had happened in Empire City; I'm now a Conduit. Except I'm sure it doesn't work like that, you're meant to have like a Conduit Gene or something, which I'm sure I don't have, especially since I'm from the _real _world.

"Um, okay I'm not sure what to do," She said, "Lemme just phone Delsin"

So Fetch took her phone out and called Delsin Rowe. "Hi, babe," She replied to his greeting, "No you have to come back today. It's Ashton. Yeah. Mhmm hm." She kept talking to him for a bit and then giggled, "Okay, see you then!" Fetch smiled at her phone, probably thinking about Delsin. "Well, you're obviously a Conduit and Delsin said he can help you learn to control your powers. He's gonna come back in about two hours so you've got some time to kill," She smiled at me when she noticed my worried look, "Don't worry, he's really friendly" But that's not what I was worrying about. I'm a Conduit. _I'm_ c_onduit?_

That same thought kept racing through my head as I waited, sprawled on the sofa, for the doorbell to ring. I realised that if I didn't think about it, the white-coloured energy would disappear from my hand but if I concentrated, it would flit across my hand and forearm. It took longer than two hours. About three and a half hours after Fetch had phoned Delsin, the bell finally rang. Fetch used lightspeed to get to the door in a second and opened it to greet a guy wearing a white hoodie, leather jacket and trademark red hat. Delsin Rowe. He had an apologetic look on his face but Fetch still didn't let him into the House without an explanation.

"Sorry I'm late, babe," he said, "I got caught up in traffic"

"Since when does traffic bother _you_?" She replied, a sceptical look on her face.

"Since that traffic is the last of the DUP's armoured cars," He smirked, "oh and I got you these." He bought his hand out from behind his body and revealed a large bouquet of red roses and tulips.

"Aww thanks!" Fetch took the flowers and let Delsin in, "You know that's gonna be your entrance fee from now on." The both smiled at each other and exchanged a short kiss. Delsin pulled away and looked at Fetch's 'jewellery'

"That's cool," He said, smirking again, "but _this," _he gathered a ball of pinkish neon energy and threw it at her. A second later, a massive necklace, ten rings, and a tiara were added to the neon accessories, "would be cooler." She looked down at the new addition and took off the tiara to inspect it.

"Not really my style, and I don't like pink anymore, blue neon looks way neater."

"Babe, unless you haven't noticed, your _hair _is pink" He placed an arm around her waist. Again they kissed, this time it lasted a little longer.

"Urrh, Guys! Get a room!" I shouted at them, worried that they were just gonna start making out in the doorway. They pulled apart and Delsin faced me.

"So, you must be Ashton."

"Just Ash," I replied

"Ash." He said, "Dude, so you're a Conduit?"

"Yeah"

"What can you do?"

"I'm not sure... urrmm..."

"He touched the water in the bath and it froze," Fetch said for me, "so he must have some sort of ice-power." My face flushed when I realised how lame that sounds, how in the world is turning a bit of water into ice going to impress the guy who can summon angels, turn invisible, explode his body and bring it back together?

"Don't worry, kid," He smirked his trademark smirk, almost as if he knew what I was thinking, "As soon as we get you some Core-Relays, you're gonna go a lot further than freezing bathwater"

* * *

The first Core-Relay wasn't that far away, it only took us about ten minutes to get there. Delsin had managed to find the Relay and hide the machine inside a bin (dumpster then, happy?) in the corner of some dirty alleyway. I have no idea why he hid it there when he could have bought it to the House instead. Delsin opened the lid of the dumpster to reveal a glowing machine with blue sparks floating around it.

"Go ahead." Delsin motioned towards it.

"What am I meant to do?" I asked. Delsin sighed.

"Just touch it and try to draw energy from it." So I placed both my hands on the Core-Relay, expecting to not feel anything, but I felt as if the sparks were alive and I could hear voices.

**_May we?_** The voices sounded quiet and almost childish.

"Whoa! Delsin did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Delsin looked at me confused. So only I heard it then

**_May we?_** Oh well, he _did_ want me to 'draw energy' from it, so why not?

"Yes" I replied out loud, Delsin gave me another funny look.

"Dude, who are you talking to?" The voices listened and the sparks started floating around me. They came closer to me and stuck onto my skin, glowing and causing me to start levitating a few inches from the ground. Then I felt them go inside me and I felt so _powerful. _It was as if nothing could stop me. Then I fell back to the ground and the sparks had disappeared. The Core-Relay stopped glowing. I had done it!

"Alright, Ash," Delsin slapped me on the back, "Lets see what you can do!" Delsin turned into a smoke cloud and disappeared up a vent. The smoke was blown to the top of a building and materialized back into him. He leaned over the edge so he could see me, "You coming, or what?" he shouted.

"How am I meant to get up there?" I shouted back.

"Almost every Conduit has a sort of 'Travel' Power," Delsin replied, "Be imaginative... and try to keep up!" He turned into smoke again and flitted to the next building. _Be imaginative. _Fuck imagination... I remembered some Ice-Conduits from inFAMOUS 2. They were really piss-taking to kill because they'd make ice pillars shoot up from under them to shoot themselves really high up into the air. If I was anything like them then I should be able to do that. So I tried directing the white energy towards the ground. The energy stayed on my hand, but frost started to form on the concrete. That was cool but wasn't the effect that I wanted. So instead I tried jumping. A triangular pillar of ice shot me high up into the air - almost as high as some of the buildings around me.

"WHOAAAA!" I yelled out. "OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT" Now I was falling down, fast. I braced for impact, wondering why the fuck I needed to die like this. But when I hit the ground, I hardly felt anything. It was as if I had just jumped normally. I had even landed on my feet and I was a few feet from where I had first jumped. I turned around and saw the metre-high pillar of ice behind me. "Now _this_ will work."

* * *

Travelling in style.

The pillars shot me up quite far and I travelled really fast, able to keep up with Delsin with relative ease, even though he had the help of air vents. So I felt quite smug that only two days into inFAMOUS, I can keep up with a powerhouse like Delsin Rowe. I almost crashed into a building when I found that I could actually rebound off vertical surfaces by creating more ice pillars to launch me off them. So now I can keep up this 'Ice Travel' (lame name -_-) without even touching the ground. But soon I realised that jumping like it was a bit awkward: I couldn't manoeuvre mid-air; I had to wait to reach another surface to jump off. So when Delsin took a tight turn into an alleyway, I had to wait to land, jump back and then carry on. But it was still pretty badass and I just loved the wind whipping in my face.

After about five minutes, Delsin stopped at the top of a particularly tall building within sight of the Space Needle. I overdid the jump and went straight over the building. I was about to just wait until I fell back to the ground when a massive golden hand plucked me out of the air and dumped me on the building roof. I turned to see who the giant hand belonged to and was greeted by a huge armour-clad angel the size of a house

"Do not fear!" A regal, almost echoing voice boomed, "For you have been saved by He Who Dwells!"


	4. Testing The Ice

**Alright, before I start I wanna say thanks to Bluehood103 for unintentionally giving me an extra sub-plot. :D thx a lot!**

* * *

"You know, I didn't need you to save me," I said to the golden angel, not happy of being man-handled (or angel-handled), "I would've just landed on the other side and jumped back."

"YOU DARE BE UNGRATEFUL TO HE WHO DWELLS!?" It bellowed, no doubt trying to intimidate me.

"I'm not being ungrateful," I replied, keeping my cool, after all I knew that it was just a computer nerd underneath, "I'm just sayin' that there was no need for you to do that." 'He Who Dwells' glowed blue and Video energy swirled around him like a tornado. A few seconds later, the energy disappeared and revealed a hooded kid with a few zits on his pale face. He was wearing a red t-shirt that had two H's (which stood for Heaven's Hellfire) and had a pair of thick glasses resting on his nose.

"Well," His voice couldn't have been more different to the giant angel's, but there was still something familiar about it, you could tell that it _was_ actually his voice but altered, "I saved you some time at least." He raised his hand, "Eugene Sims." I shook it.

"Ashton..." I quickly searched my brain for a suitable surname; I couldn't say 'McKinney' because I had already changed my first name, "MacGrath." God, I'm so stupid. 'MacGrath'. Really? "But Ash is fine. Wait a second, where's Delsin?" I asked looking around for the Conduit. Right on cue, a cloud of smoke swirled out of a vent on the roof and Delsin appeared in front of us. You could tell, just by looking at Eugene that he was thinking of replying with some smart-ass answer to my question.

"Alright, that's enough time for you two to bond," Delsin smirked, "We've got a job to do, the Akurans have got hold of some of Ol' Augustine's gear." He turned to me, "You can help too."

"Good idea, except I don't see how I'm gonna stop gun-toting baddies by jumping on them... That's all I can do"

"There's another two Core-Relays nearby but the Akurans have got them." Delsin said.

"So we can get you some new powers" Eugene added, "_and_ destroy the equipment that the Akurans stole." I considered this for a second and nodded my head.

"Killing two birds with one stone." I said.

"Exactly," Delsin replied. He walked to the roof and was about to jump off when he saw a satellite dish. He extended his arm towards it making blue Video energy drain off the screen and charge up Delsin, "Follow me!" He said jumping off the building. He grew a pair of glowing angelic wings and flew off. Eugene grew similar wings but his were bigger and he had four instead of two. I struggled to keep up with the duo, the Video Travel power seemed to be a lot more efficient, quick_ and_ manoeuvrable than Smoke and definitely far better than my Ice. I remembered that Delsin could only use Video Surge for a few seconds but he seemed to be keeping up his flight as long as he wanted. Makes you wonder why he bothers with Smoke and Neon.  
I was out of breath from all the jumping by the time Delsin and Eugene stopped at another roof. They had hardly even broken a sweat. Huh, must be nice being able to grow wings.

"The Akurans are in that alleyway, but there's a _lot_ of them," Delsin pointed just below the building, "Let's take 'em by surprise. Eugene summon some angels and block off that side," He pointed to the right, "Ash, you come with me, we'll take out the ones that Eugene misses and get the two Core-Relays. And remember, No Killing." Delsin looked at me pointedly, "You're new to this so you might not know. If you kill even one of those guys, you can forget about my help." He turned away, "You guys ready to kick some ass?" Without even waiting for an answer, he jumped down into the alley and immediately started firing a torrent of Video energy into the crowd of about two hundred. Eugene transformed into He Who Dwells and flew down with a small army of angels and I joined Delsin. It turned out that I _could_ do more than just jumping on them. I focused my power into the palm of my hand and pointed it at one Akuran. Nothing shot out of my hand but frost gathered on the guy's gun and when he tried to fire it, nothing happened. I must have frozen the gunpowder or something.

"Having fun?" Delsin asked, raising his arms and summoning a dozen blue swords. When he bought his hands down, the swords pinned four of the Akurans to the ground by their clothes.

"Not really." I replied.

"Well then, you need a little something new..." He created a hand out of Video energy and grabbed the Relay to his right. The hand cracked the machine open and he threw it towards me. I just managed to duck out of the way, "Sorry!" He yelled. I don't think sorry really cuts it, considering he almost took my head off but there's no point complaining. I walked up the glowing machine while Delsin and Eugene kept the enemies off me with complete ease; they probably weren't even trying. This time I heard the voices before I even touched it.

**_We can make your power grow!_** Maybe I'm going mental, but I don't really give a shit.

**_Make it grow!_**

"Yeah, sure, do whatever." I replied. Again the blue sparks flew towards my body and that temporary surge of power washed over me. I fell to the ground, not even noticing in the first place that they had made me levitate again. I had a good feeling about what I could do now. "Let's see what I got!" I shouted to both of them. I raised both hands skyward and the white energy glowed brighter than it ever had. _Now_ it could pass as Cryo-energy. A circle of light appeared on the ground around me and a giant pillar of ice grew beneath me. Within a few seconds I was standing on a huge column of ice. The Akurans completely forgot about Delsin and Eugene and focused on me. Even the other two Conduits seemed in awe for a moment. Then the thugs started to shoot at me. Most of their bullets missed, simply because I was too high up but soon some started to hit home. I expected an explosion of searing pain, but it didn't seem to hurt that much, it felt more like a violent punch than an actual deadly bullet. And they only made me angry.

I pointed my hand toward the group of Akurans and focused the same Cryo-energy towards them. This time the energy came off my hands in a bright beam and froze everything it came across, including the Akurans. I noticed that Delsin and Eugene had stopped fighting and were sitting casually on the edge of the building we had jumped off, as if watching a T.V show.

_All the more for me_ I thought. I had frozen a dozen of the gang members when I decided to jump down from the pillar. On the way down I gathered more Cryo energy in both my hands and smashed it down on the ground. A wave of white light erupted across the concrete and froze more of them. Looking up, I saw that there were only ten more Akurans to go. I also saw that the next Core-Relay was only about ten yards away. I knew I wouldn't be able to absorb it if the Akurans kept shooting at me but I really wanted to knock these guys out with something new (because the newly found freezing-the-baddies power just wasn't new enough). So I concentrated more energy on the ground in front of me. A line of glowing white appeared on the ground and, when I raised my hands, a wall of ice grew between me and the Akurans. Good luck getting past that. Now for the Relay.

**_Want more_**_ **already? **_The voices asked, with a hint of amusement. That is if glowing blue sparks generated by Ray Sphere energy can in any way feel amused and also assuming that it isn't all in my head.

_Why not?_ I thought. The Relay seemed to have heard because the sparks made their way towards me. Well, at least I could communicate with them by thinking. That made me feel a _lot _less mad (!) Another power surge and I'm ready to go. I looked up at Delsin and saw that he was smirking, as usual. Why is that guy so... _smirky_ all the time? This time I was less sure about what I could do, but expected that it would come instinctually like the last time. I summoned the Cryo energy in my hands again. This time I felt like there was more I could do with it.

So I experimented.  
Instead of trying to do anything directly to the Akurans, I focused on the wall of ice separating us and the ice-column behind me. I felt a pulling sensation on both hands and when I lifted my hands and closed my eyes in concentration. Something started to crack.

"Holy..." I heard someone say. Delsin.

"Shit." Eugene finished. I opened my eyes and saw that the column and wall were hanging in the air like puppets. And I was the puppet master. I contemplated throwing the two giant constructs at the remaining Akurans but I knew that that would kill them instantly. So I settled for a _slightly_ less violent approach. It didn't take much energy or time to break the ice into smaller chunks, each roughly the size of a tennis ball. And when they did, the Akurans knew that they weren't going to win. A couple were clever enough to run but the rest started shooting at me again. So I threw the ice at them. I didn't lessen my control over the ice though; even though they were a lot smaller, they could still kill them. Instead I decreased the speed of the ice so that they'd just knock the Akurans out - a bit like pulling your punches when you don't want to hurt someone. Well that was the Akurans taken care of and another two Core-Relays absorbed, but other than the Relays themselves, where was the equipment that Delsin had mentioned? Speaking of Delsin, our favourite winged Conduit flew down from the roof.

"Damn dude, that was _some_ display of power, was that telekinesis?" He asked, amazingly his smirk had been replaced by a look of... was that admiration?

"No... I think it only works on ice," I answered.

"Man... Even I wasn't that powerful after only three Relays."

"Thanks!" I replied, starting to feel a _little_ big-headed, "But didn't you say that the Akurans had got ahold of some of Augustine's gear? Were you talking about the Core..." Delsin interrupted me.

"Dude, Dude, Eugene's gone to scout out where the others are," He put his hands on my shoulders, the way you do to a little brother when you're trying to explain something to him (or you're politely asking him to take a hike), "These guys weren't the only Akurans in town, you know," the smirk returning to his face, "and they _definitely_ weren't the ones with the best firepower"

* * *

Jumping again, yay! And that wasn't even sarcasm, I genuinely enjoy launching myself into the air and travelling at roughly 50 mph. Delsin had switched back to smoke so that it would be easier for me to keep up because his Video Surge was _way_ too fast and I almost lost him once. We stopped close to the edge of the ocean, where Eugene was waiting for us.

"Alright, Eugene," Delsin started talking before he had even fully materialized back into his solid form, "fill me in."

"There's three floors in the building," Eugene quickly straightened his glasses and carried on, "The first floor has a few Akurans left to guard it but there's no one waiting outside. The second floor has a lot of Augustine's equipment so of course more thugs; they've got a few of those shackles that stop us from using our powers, no doubt for the innocent Conduits that they kidnap and beat the shit out of." He scowled, "The third floor has a lot more Akurans but there's not any of Augustine's stuff except for another Core-Relay which I think they're using to track down Conduits. The roof, has the same amount of Akurans as the second floor but there's also a lot more of them on nearby roofs; altogether more than the entire building. I can't figure out why there's so many Akurans on the roof, there's no equipment or anything up there." He scowled again, this time more directed at himself.

"Okay Eugene, don't beat yourself up about it," Delsin gave his trademark (and possibly copyrighted) smirk, "we'll find out when we get there anyway."

"Well, I for one am itching for a chance to absorb another Core Relay." I added, "So what are we waiting for?"

Delsin smirked.


	5. A Deliberate Bullet

**Just a heads-up: get prepared for a surprise... **

* * *

The building was rectangular shaped and as Eugene said, had three floors and a flat roof. There were three buildings surrounding it that had Akurans on the roofs. We couldn't subdue them without alerting the other Akurans on the roof of the main building and we also needed to get the guys inside it. So we decided for a more stealthy approach. Delsin and Eugene could both turn invisible and, with a bit of concentration, would be able to turn me invisible too but only if I stayed close to them, which was actually tricky because they were both _invisible. _Halfway to the building I almost got out of their range and lost the invisibility but Eugene grabbed me by the arm and made sure I stayed close. We silently stalked towards the Akurans' hideout and stopped just outside the opened glass front-door.

"You guys ready?" Delsin asked us, from here the building looked like a hospital inside and I won't be surprised if it once _had _been one. But it sure as hell isn't one now, there's a pistol lying on what may have been the reception desk and six Akurans sitting on plastic chairs; 5 smoking hand rolled cigarettes and the last snorting some white powder, probably cocaine, with a metal straw. All of them were armed with at least one gun, all automatic assault rifles, and one guy had a bazooka. It would be _very _stupid for him to use that indoors but Akurans aren't exactly famous for their brains. If he did shoot it, I'm guessing it'd hurt a _bit_ more than a bullet, but I doubt he'd get the chance. We became visible again but it didn't matter, we were hidden from the view of the guys on the roofs, each behind a concrete pillar.

"As ready as I'll ever be," I replied, already gathering a ball of energy in my hand.

"Yeah." Eugene agreed.

"Alright Ashton, you just sit tight for now, me and Eugene got this." Delsin saw that one Akuran had stubbed out his cigarette and had lit another one, but the smoke from the one he had discarded was within absorbing distance. Delsin reached his hand out and the small wisp of smoke travelled towards him. He absorbed it, switching his power again, "See those guys smoking? I can control the smoke and make 'em choke on it, should make 'em unconscious. But that leaves that isn't smoking. Eugene you can take him, yeah?"

"With ease." I felt a bit left out but I guess I'm the least experienced of the trio and with Delsin's method; we would still remain under the radar.

"Alright," He nodded to Eugene, "on three. One. Two... Three." They both acted at the same time. Eugene shot a blue pixelated bolt of energy that turned into hammer midair and smashed the guy snorting cocaine straight in the nose. He wouldn't be getting up for a while. Meanwhile, the other five guys were stood up and clutching their throats, trying to scream or call for help, but their lungs were full of smoke which leaked out of their mouths and made their eyes water. It only took a few seconds for them to pass out. So that's the first floor done. From Eugene's description, the second and third would be nowhere near as easy.

Delsin turned to smoke and darted inside - me and Eugene swiftly followed.

"What's the plan?" I asked. Delsin scoffed at my question.

"Hmm. Go to the second floor. Beat up the Akurans. Don't kill anyone and try not to die," He smiled, "That good enough?"

"It'll do." I chuckled.

"After you." He said, opening the door to the stairs. There was an Akuran on the other side. Eugene conjured his hammer again and whacked him over the head, knocking him out cold before he could shout to his buddies. "That was close." Delsin turned into smoke and dashed up the staircase, faster than us two. We soon heard the sound of gunfire and ran up the stairs to get to help out. When we got there we saw that a cloud of smoke and embers was darting between a few dozen Akurans and materialising just long enough to restrain them in smoky restraints. They kept on trying to shoot him, but by the time they aimed, he had already turned to smoke and the bullets passed harmlessly through and they occasionally hit each other, which just made them more angry and therefore more stupid. We joined the fight and caused even more chaos. Eugene turned into a smaller version of his avatar, just about short enough to not blow off the ceiling and started blasting away at the Akurans. I created a thick sheet of ice on my arm the size of a shield and blocked most of the gunfire directed at me, the few bullets that did get pass my defense instantly froze and shattered on my hardened Conduit skin. With my other hand I shot a beam of cryoenergy into the crowd, freezing as much people as I could. I realised that their frozen bodies would make good projectiles so I stopped the beam and lifted the frozen Akurans into the air. Their bodies orbited around me, fast enough to knock out anyone that came near me but not fast enough to kill them. This method was a lot better; I could knock them out this way faster than I could freeze them. Delsin had switched to video and he and Eugene had started to create a small army of angels, but it was taking a while and they slowed down every time someone shot them. So I created I threw my ice shield at the closest Akuran and dropped the frozen bodies around me, providing myself with some cover; I needed to defend Delsin and Eugene so I focused on creating a wall of ice to block off the gunfire.

Unfortunately, because they realised that they couldn't hurt them two now, so instead the Akurans focused on me. I just about had enough time to create a flimsy shield that managed to block some of the gunfire but it started to crack and break at the sides. I crouched down so that the shield blocked more of my body and I could avoid any shots to the legs. I tried to make the shield thicker but my hands had stopped glowing. I was out of juice... and I didn't even know what my powers source is.

"Guys, whatever you're doing, hurry up!" I shouted at Delsin and Eugene. I looked at the Akurans through the blur of my shield. They had retreated backwards but were still shooting at me with the exception of two; they were still close to me but for some reason, weren't shooting. They both had something in their hands. I peeked out the side of my shield to see what the hell they were doing. Big mistake. A bullet clipped my head and I dropped my shield, stumbling backwards - now with no defense. And I didn't see what the closer two Akurans had in their hands until they threw them at me. Two grenades.

_Crap._ The explosions threw me backwards and smashed my body clean through the ice wall. And it didn't stop there. I head another smashing sound similar to the one of the ice breaking, except with a higher pitch... Glass. A window. _Shittt!_ And suddenly, I'm falling. Bullets are hitting me from every angle. I can't breathe. And then I smash into the ground. I wasn't prepared for the pain that coursed through every cell of my body. Why was it hurting so much? The building wasn't even that high up; I'd landed without a scratch when even higher up before... maybe it had something to do with me being out of energy. But still, I was in so much pain that I could hardly move. And the bullets didn't stop and my vision blurred. If I didn't get away soon, I knew I would die. With a groan, I pulled myself onto my hands and knees. Agony erupted across my body with every bullet that hit me, but I managed to crawl behind a low concrete barrier. The gunfire carried on, but most of the bullets didn't hit me, although the ones that did refreshed my pain and added a sizeable amount more. I could feel myself slipping away. My vision was slowly going darker.

**_Let us heal_**** _you._ **The voices again, except this time they sounded different... silky - regal, almost. **_Replenish you. _**Replenish me? That sounds good... **_We are here!_**

I managed to finally realise where the voices were coming from, the broken fountain in front of me. There were so many bullet holes in the stone fountain that it's hard to tell what its original shape had been and it wasn't spouting any water. But one thing was clear: There was still _some _murky water at the bottom. And the voices were coming from there. Of course... Am I that stupid? My power's ice, so it only makes sense for the 'fuel' to be water. I extended my hand towards the fountain and water poured out. It trickled through the air in a mesmerizing pattern, coiling around itself before it finally reached me. And when it touched me, my vision immediately cleared and the pain was literally _washed_ away (pun, heh). Thank god for me being mental or else I'd be dead! A few bullets hit me, but it didn't hurt as much as the last wave of gunfire. I noticed that my shirt was in tatters, obviously by the bullets and the goddamn grenades. A few more bullets hit me, these ones hurting a bit more - I created another ice shield but didn't try and take on the Akurans on the rooftops that were shooting at me, there were way too many. Instead I launched myself upwards with small pillar of ice and landed in the same floor that I had fallen out of. Delsin and Eugene had summoned a dozen armoured angels and had taken care of the rest of the Akurans on the second floor.

"You're still alive!" Delsin beamed. I was about to reply when Eugene interrupted.

"Augustine's stuff is here," He walked up to four small metal crates stacked on top of each other and created a large blue sword in his hand. He swung the weapon and cut open each box. We expected guns or weapons or maybe even a stash of blast shards but we found the shackles that Augustine used to stop Conduit's powers. Each one was made of a sleek black metal and had a stripe of blue light running down each side. What was most confusing was the fact that the Akurans had them. What were they going to use them for? Maybe they were going to sell them on the black market, or maybe they were going to try and capture some Conduits. The thought of that made me clench my fists and Delsin and Eugene looked equally grim. Even though I was a new member of the species, I couldn't help but feel sympathy for the Conduits that were caught and experimented on by Brooke Augustine and her DUP. And these Akurans are probably planning a similar sort of thing.

"We need to destroy them," I said, creating a small boulder of ice between my hands.

"You read my mind, Ash." Delsin created a sword identical to the one Eugene had conjured earlier. We hit the crates together and left them - and everything inside - in a mixture of both frozen and smoking chunks of metal. "And onto the third floor..."

* * *

The third floor was easier than the second. Mainly because, since it had just been one huge room, we almost got overwhelmed on the second floor. But the third was made up of two narrow corridors with adjoining rooms. This meant that the Akurans could only fight us from one side and it would be harder for them to avoid friendly-fire. But it also meant that they could surprise us by hiding in the rooms and blowing us out of windows with grenades. Yes... it did happen again. And it was NOT amusing. We had split up, knowing that we could clear the floor fast if we did so, when I peered through the glass door of one of the rooms. It looked like a storage room and _appeared _to be empty of any Akurans. I decided to go inside, just to make sure, and to look for the Core-Relay that Eugene had said would be on this floor when an Akuran with a white shirt jumps out from behind the door and darts out of the room. Too late do I realise the small metal ball rolling towards my feet.

"Oh, boy..." The explosion would have only sent be staggering backwards, but - with my luck - I happened to be standing with my back to a window and I was sent flying through it. I managed to create a thin ice shield (Ice shields are definitely a favourite now) that was shattered by the blast but still absorbed most of it. The momentum still sent me tumbling through the air again and this time when I landed on the ground, the Akurans on the rooftops looked surprised by my reappearance. In fact, they were so surprised that they forgot to shoot at me and I quickly launched myself up to third floor, through the broken window, and only got hit by three bullets on my way back up. I stormed out of the storage room and saw the Akuran in the white shirt running through the corridor. He grabbed the hand of the fire-escape door but I shot a ball of cryoenergy at him, intending to freeze him. Except, in my rage, I hadn't spent enough time creating a non-lethal projectile and ended up actually shooting a sharp shard of ice. I tried to stop the shard before it hit the man, but I was too late... it had already sunk into his back. Blood spattered on the walls around him and he fell down. I ran over to the man, hoping I could heal him somehow - Cole and Delsin could so why can't I? - But you could tell by the way his eyes glazed over that he was already dead. _Shit, _I thought. What had Delsin said?

_'If you kill even one of those guys, you can forget about my help.' _I started to panic. I may be a Conduit but I was new to this entire _world_ not to mention Seattle itself. I wouldn't survive two day out there without Delsin's help. And I had killed this person. In a split second decision, and with my head clouded with anxiety, I froze the man's body and used my power to lift him. Hopefully Delsin wouldn't look in the storage room, if he does... I'm screwed. I had just thrown his frozen body into the room when I heard Delsin and Eugene coming. I turned around to see if I had missed anything when I noticed the blood on the walls and floor. _Oh fffu..._

"Hey Ash, you missed all the fun!" Delsin shouted. I'm starting to panic again, if they noticed the blood...

"Yeah, who knew beating up Akurans is a great stress relieving technique?" Eugene added. Hastily, I decided to create a wall of ice that completely blocked off the side of the corridor with the blood stains. "What was that about?" Eugene asked. I turned around and they were right behind me. Crap... had they seen it?

"Oh... Urmm" I looked at the ice as if I had no idea how it got there, "I think... maybe, um, I'm havin' a bit of trouble, urrrr, controlling my powers." My uncomfortableness was evident. Eugene had a suspicious look on his face and he was squinting at the translucent ice... but Delsin didn't look like he suspected a thing. Still, if Eugene was going to check behind the wall to see if there was anything there that had made me so nervous... '_You can forget about my help.'_

"Oh don't worry, you just gotta get used to them." Delsin said, "The Core-Relay is just over there," He pointed at a room on the other end of the corridor. Me and Delsin walked toward the room, but Eugene stayed squinting at the wall. _Oh no._ "Hey, Eugene, you comin'?" He turned away from the wall and joined us outside the room. _PHEW! _I opened the door and saw that the room was even smaller than the storage room that I had got blown out of. It was just big enough to contain the Core-Relay and one person. Delsin nodded his head, a signal telling me to go ahead.

**_Hello, again._** The voices greeted him like an old friend. And when I absorbed them, the surge of power was even stronger than either of the last three. When it was over, I looked at my hands which were glowing with Cryokinetic energy.

"I think I got something big."

* * *

We walked up the last flight of stairs to the roof. It was amazing that the other Akurans hadn't come down to attack us but it was probably to guard whatever was up there. According to Eugene, there were a _lot_ more Akurans on the roof and the surrounding roofs so they must be protecting something that was even more valuable than the Core Relay and Augustine's Conduit shackles. We readied ourselves for a big fight, Delsin and Eugene summoned a horde of angels and I created a strong ice-shield. Delsin blasted open the door and we gave them everything we got. Eugene turned into a glowing blue version of He Who Dwells and shot twin beams of Video energy into the crowds on each roof. Delsin turned invisible and shot explosive swords and created giant hand to grab and subdue the Akurans. And I smashed a fist into the ground of the roof, making blunt shards of ice shoot out and freeze the guys that Delsin and Eugene missed. Like before, I raised my hands and the frozen bodies lifted up into the air, now my weapons. I created a tower of ice to stand atop, and I managed to freeze even more Akurans from my higher vantage point. They didn't even stand a chance. Within minutes they were all either frozen, knocked out or pinned to the ground with giant swords.

"That wasn't so hard." I commented.

"Yeah." Eugene agreed, "But now we gotta figure out why there was so much Akurans up here in the first place"

"Reckon it's got something to do with that?" I pointed at a pyramid shaped container on the closest building. Delsin looked at where I was pointing.

"Let's check it out."

Just then I heard a whooshing sound to my right. I turned to find what had made the sound and saw a tail of fire speeding towards us. Delsin and Eugene noticed it on the last second and flew to the building with the pyramid, but I wasn't fast enough. I know that Conduits are super-durable but if even Delsin won't risk a missile straight to the chest, I don't see how the hell I could survive one. It _would_ have killed me, except Eugene threw a sword at it just in time; the blast still threw me back - and my shield went flying out of my hand - but it didn't hurt anymore than the grenades had and, thankfully, I was still on the rooftop. The missile was soon followed by what had shot it, and the tell-tale sound let us know exactly what it was before it arrived. A helicopter. There were two automatic turrets on either side accompanied by an arsenal of missiles.

"They're new..." Delsin mused, seemingly unaffected by the threat. As if one helicopter wasn't bad enough, two more joined it. We were surrounded.

"Since when did Akurans get _helicopters?_" Eugene asked to no one in particular, "Ash, you said that you got something new?" I nodded and raised my hands skywards and held my breath - channelling as much cryoenergy through my body as I could. Instantly the sky grew darker. A clap of thunder was followed by sheets of rain. No, not rain. Hail. It soon escalated into a full on hail-storm and the tennis-ball sized blocks of ice made one of the copters completely lose control and swerve into a building. I snapped my hands downwards and the other two helicopters froze instantly. They fell to the ground and broke into shards of metal and ice. I started to breathe again and the clouds parted. The sky returned to normal.

"If you're finished, come see this." Delsin smirked. I smiled back at him and launched myself at the building. I landed and realized that I felt exhausted. But in a different way... I had run out of energy again, I couldn't see any water nearby, I'll recharge later. The pyramid had been broken open - a stain of Video energy on the shell gave a hint as to how - and inside were two objects. One caught my attention immediately.

_No way. _It was a Blast Core. The other object was a blue SD card. Delsin picked up the glowing purple rock.

"Got any idea what this is?" He asked us.

"Yeah," I answered, "It's meant to..." But Eugene interrupted:

"Who's that?" Eugene was looking at someone on the first building's rooftop. He was wearing a dirty-yellow trench coat that may once have been white and a hood that completely covered his entire face in a shadow, with the exception of his eyes that burned orange. On his right hand was some sort of metal gauntlet and... He was holding a large white pistol. He raised his gun and pointed it at Delsin.

"WATCH OUT!" I pushed him out of the way and an echoing bang hung in the air. The man started laughing; his voice sounded like his throat was on fire. The bullet missed Delsin, who was fast to retaliate; he swiftly raised his hand and shot two bolts of Video energy at the hooded figure. Both missed but he didn't shoot anymore. I looked at Delsin in confusion, why had he stopped? And then I realized. Delsin was trying to shoot but the Video energy had disappeared. Okay... but what about Eugene? I looked at him.

"Shit... _DELSIN!" _he turned to me and then to what I was staring in horror at. Eugene was lying in a pool of blood.

* * *

**I'm sorry for the cliffhanger! No I'm not... MWAHAHAHA! If you liked this chapter please review. I might take a break from this fic but I'll return when you can't bear it anymore... hehehehe...**


	6. They Burn Orange

**If anyone has any time, please review (or even send a message) : It'd be great to hear what you guys think, even if you think this is a piece of shit. I need tips for improvement, because - obviously - this isn't a perfect fanfiction, but it can get closer to perfect with your help. This is the first fic that I've wrote more than two chapters for so I can't tell what's good/bad about it.**

**Thanx and PEACE  
Oreo**

* * *

"EUGENE!" Delsin lost his smirky self immediately. He ran to where the hooded gamer lay and fell to his knees; running his hands over his bloodied body - looking for a sign, any sign, of life. There were none. Eugene's glasses lay a few feet away in a pool of blood of their own, as if they had also bled. His eyes were glazed over and were fixed on one point in the sky, his mouth lay slightly open and the edges curled in a dead smile. The bullet had lodged itself somewhere in his brain. It was too late to save him. The hooded man was still laughing. Delsin completely lost his cool; he absorbed Smoke from a nearby chimney and charged towards the man. With a furious yell he turned into smoke and flew towards him. The man tossed calmly holstered his gun and waited for Delsin. The smoke turned back into the powerful Conduit and a cinder blast sent the man flying backwards. Delsin shot a volley of smoke rockets at him before he could recover. He dashed towards him and started punishing him with his chain, swearing with every strike. He finished off with another cinder blast which threw the man straight off the building. Halfway through his fall, the man disappeared.

"If that is the best you have got," Delsin whipped around at the sound of the hooded man's voice, he was standing on the opposite side of the roof completely unharmed by the super-powered assault, "then what I have been told of your power is... immensely exaggerative." The man disappeared again and reappeared directly in front of Delsin. He swiped his hand through the air and Delsin was sent flying into the sky. A fall from that height would have even hurt a Conduit but Delsin managed to turn into smoke and saved himself. "My turn." The man said in a sinister voice. He teleported again and again around Delsin, disappearing before he even fully reappeared. Delsin shot smoke bullets repeatedly but missed every time. The man got close again and another wave of his hand smashed Delsin into an air conditioning unit. He didn't get back up. I wanted to help Delsin but I was out of energy from the last battle. I looked around, searching desperately for a power source. I saw the ocean in the distance. C_ould I? _It looked like it was miles away and I doubted anyone could absorb energy from that sort of distance. But I had to try. I closed my eyes and called out to the water.

_I need to recharge..._ There was no reply. _I NEED to recharge. I NEED TO RECHARGE. I NEED..._

**_As you wish. _**A large bolt of cryoenergy shot out from the ocean and sped towards me. I absorbed it and launched myself at the man in the hood. He turned to face me and teleported away before I landed my midair punch. The man teleported close to me but I stomped my foot on the ground, sending cryoenergy across the ground. He was too fast, disappearing before my attack even got close. A metal fist hit me in the nose. I stumbled back and another fist hit me from behind. Another and another. He was toying with me. Time to end this. I smashed the ground again to give me a bit of breathing space. I raised my hands skywards and summoned a hailstorm. The hail stones hit him wherever he tried to teleport and his movements started to get awkward; he was getting hurt. _Yes!_ I snapped my hands downwards and - instantly - the man was frozen in a block of ice. Out of breath, I called another bolt of energy from the distant ocean and replenished my supply. Cautiously, I walked towards the frozen man. _He looks like... Kessler... _The man's orange eyes glowed even when he was frozen. He blinked. The sky darkened again but, this time, I hadn't caused it.

"Shit." Was all I could manage before the ice blew apart. A lightning bolt shot down from the blackened clouds and broke him from his icy prison. I was so close that I was also electrocuted. I fell to the ground in pain; my vision went dark like before.

"It will help your pride if you accept the belief that you never stood a chance." The man sneered as he walked away.

"WHO ARE YOU!?" I shouted at his back.

"You may call me... Kessler." He turned around and glared at me with his burning eyes.

"But... you're not... Kessler," I managed, each breath burning my lungs. I could feel my consciousness slipping, "His eyes... were... blue."

"Very good!" The man smiled in an eerie way, "How does someone as insignificant as you know that?" He spoke in a superior tone.

"Why not just... kill us... now?"

"Don't worry, your deaths are inevitable," He laughed, "But I don't feel like killing you now." He paused to crouch and stare directly at me. From this distance, I could make out his ugly wrinkled face. He didn't have any eyebrows and his teeth were rotted brown. Wiry, silver hair poked out the side of his hood. The original Kessler was bald. Who was this wannabe Kessler? "You see... I enjoy playing games."


	7. Colder Than Me

**Thanks a lot to Dimension Distorter favoriting, following and for helping me out, you've really cleared up some uncertainties on my behalf and have helped a lot with some mistakes on source material. And also to Jak Sandrow, DannyPhantom619 & InsomniacAggronGamer (who changed his name to WanderLustAggron) for leaving reviews. As always, please fav/follow and leave some points for improvement. If any of you readers haven't left a review, please do so that I know what's good and what's bad.**

**Thx & PEACE!  
Oreo.**

* * *

"Thank God, you're awake." I opened my eyes and painful light flooded in. I squeezed them shut and this time opened them slowly. I was back in my room at The House. Fetch was sitting on the dresser; her hair was dyed fluorescent blue with a few pink and purple highlights. Her eyes were red and she had streaks of mascara running down her face. Tears were pooling in her eyes. "D woke up just ten minutes ago. He told me what happened with Eugene," Eugene. Oh God. I remembered the pool of blood around his head. His vacant eyes. "I didn't know anything was wrong. I came looking for you guys when you didn't come back and I found Delsin and you knocked out. Eugene... I was too late. Maybe if I'd come earlier, I could've stopped that maniac. I.." Her voice cracked.

"Fetch, you couldn't have done a thing." I tried sitting up from my bed but pain exploded in my chest where the lightning bolt had hit me, so I lay back down, "this guy... Kessler," I named him, "he was so powerful. Me and Delsin didn't stand a chance."

"But we're gonna hunt him down,"

I turned my head to see Delsin standing in the doorway. He was leaning against the doorframe and clutching his side, he was hurt too, "And then we're gonna kill him." His face was like a statue, expressionless. But the rage in his eyes was hard to miss. With a determined look specifically in my direction, he turned around and limped down the hallway. I tried to get up again, Fetch offered to help but I shook my head. Ignoring the fiery pain, I staggered after Delsin with Fetch in tow, fresh tears smudging her make-up.

An hour later, the two of us are training in the massive backyard. We're quickly finding out my limits, I can jump up to the height of a small skyscraper but it's easier to take it in two or three smaller jumps. With a bit of imagination, I can create some cool ice-constructs like a giant hand and rockets that instantly freeze on impact. Beams of Cryoenergy take a lot more energy than ice constructs but are a lot more efficient. I don't have as much energy as Delsin or Fetch, but they both assure me that I'll get better with practice. I start off practicing some shooting. I can create ice-shards really quickly and they travel far and fast. But Delsin claims that they're too dangerous (well, I already figured _that_ out) and that I should try creating blunt projectiles. It's a bit slower to do that but after an hour of shooting at targets painted on the walls, I get used to it.

Then we start 'sparring'. Delsin pushes me as hard as he can; I immediately take on the defensive as he pounds me with Concrete. Apparently he had lost Video when Eugene died and that made him even more bitter. I just about have the time to create some thin constructs that block his attacks but each assault broke my defenses and I was forced to create more. Within a few minutes, I was drained dry. I put my hands up - signalling that I need a break but Delsin didn't stop. He Boulder-Dashed straight at me and smashed me to the ground. I saw stars.

"Out there, that... _murderer_ won't give you a break," He spat viciously, "so I won't either." He raised his fist and gathered concrete around it. I just managed to roll away and sprang to my feet before he could attack again. I couldn't spot any sources of water nearby so I called some from the distant ocean (I found out that I didn't need to see it to absorb it). The energy would take a while to get to me, however, so I ran straight towards Delsin. He wasn't expecting that. And he didn't know that I had been taking MMA lessons since I was four years old... So he wasn't expecting what came next either. I dodged around his slow, Concrete-powered punch and got him in a headlock. When he tried to use Concrete to escape, I shifted my body-weight and pulled my arm upwards. Delsin fell to the ground with a startled gasp. The cryoenergy was getting closer.

_How much longer? _I asked.

**_Seconds._**

Delsin got up and shot three Concrete bullets at me. I dodged the first two but the last one hit me hard in the shoulder. I heard a sound like wood cracking and I couldn't feel my arm. _Shit._ Delsin began to gather Concrete around his hands. I could see the cryoenergy speeding towards me in the distance. The shards of concrete formed gauntlets around his hands and he ran towards me. A bolt of blue light exploded between us.

_Took long enough._

**_Be grateful. _**The cryoenergy had finally arrived, both healing my dislocated shoulder and recharging me. Delsin, on the other hand, was almost out of energy. Seeing that I had been fully recharged, he decided to use up the rest of his energy trying to beat me. He shot more concrete bullets at me, with one hand, which I easily blocked by creating an ice-shield, although it chipped away at the sides. With his other hand he created a giant boulder. When my shield finally broke under the barrage of bullets, he launched the boulder at me. I punched the ground and shards of ice shot out, slowing the boulder... but not stopping it. I raised my hands and glowing blue energy radiated from my palms. The shards rose from the ground and joined together to create an enormous hand. Using my hastily-crafted construct, I caught the boulder just before it hit me. The impact created cracks in the ice, and for a second I was afraid that it might give way, but I quickly repaired the cracks and - with a grunt of effort - threw the boulder back at Delsin. He raised his arms over his face in a meek defense. It would have flattened him. But I caught it again, less than a second before it hit him. With a squeeze of both hands, I crushed the concrete into a fine powder and let it fall onto Delsin. Then I melted the giant hand and drenched him.

"Nice work-out." I smiled innocently.

"Yeah." Delsin almost smirked. Almost.

* * *

I look at the clock on the wall. 7:00 PM. My gaze returns to the half-drunk glass of homemade lemonade in my hands. How do I tell Fetch that it tastes disgusting in a polite way (you know, so she doesn't fry my brains)? Delsin's already pulled the old Spill-It-Into-The-Potted-Plant trick and complimented the blue-haired Conduit on how delicious it was... making it even harder to tell her. Instead of drinking the rest, I freeze the liquid and melt it again and again, waiting for Fetch to leave the living room so that I can copy Delsin's tactics. I heard the door open behind me and turned to see that very same Delsin. I smiled but he returned it with a grim look. He then turned to Fetch.

"Celia's up to her tricks again. The police phoned me as soon as they found they recognised the marks on the body." Celia Penderghast. I remembered her from the Paper Trail DLC from inFAMOUS. Unfortunately, I hadn't actually played it... I was planning to until I got sucked into the very same world. Oh well. "I'm gonna go see if I can get her."

"I'll come with you." Fetch said. Delsin gave her a look that said: 'Oh no, you're not'

"Ash, come on," He beckoned me to come with him. I got up and was about to put my jacket on when Fetch stopped me.

"I'm completely fine, Del-"

"You know that you're not," Delsin gave her that look again. When she was about to reply, he interrupted again; "Look, Fetch, I'm not having this argument with you now. Stay at the House." He turned around and opened the door. "You comin', Ash?"

"Sure." I put my jacket on and followed Delsin. "Bye, Abi." I smiled at Fetch and she couldn't help smiling back. I left the frozen lemonade on the coffee table.

* * *

The sky was getting dark but the bright white paper strips kinda stood out. Delsin was using his Lightspeed to get around and I was having a bit of trouble keeping up but just about managed.

"Where are we even going!?" I shouted over the howling wind.

"The murder-scene... The police have cordoned the place off, but we'll be allowed in. There might be some clues to find Celia."

That's when we heard the sound of rustling paper behind us and Delsin's head whipped around to see a swarm of paper strips flying above us.

"Someone mention my name?" A female voice asked from the papers. It took me a second to realise that it was Celia Penderghast - the white rabbit - and then we chased those strips all over the city. They moved so fast that the fact that we were even able to keep up the chase made me think that she _wanted_ us to follow her. It didn't take long for me to get out of breath and also almost out of energy just by all the jumping around. The paper strips stopped at the base of a tall building and materialized into a girl wearing a blue leather trenchcoat and a paper mask shaped like a rabbit's face with dove's wings mounted behind her head. The trenchcoat was new, it looked identical to Augustine's which made me wonder if it was the exact same. The wings were also new, probably something to represent the DUP. Celia ran towards the building and disappeared up a vent, just like Delsin could, and appeared on the roof a second later.

"That's new." Delsin commented as he followed her up the - wait a second... wasn't Delsin using Neon? How did he switch without absorbing Smoke? I'd ask him later. I spotted a fountain a few meters away and absorbed the water before taking a less direct route to the top. I ice-launched myself to the neighbouring building and rebounded off the wall, landing on the roof to see Delsin and Celia locked in combat. Paper is a lot stronger than it sounds; Delsin shot five consecutive smoke rockets at Celia but she intercepted each one with sharpened strips of paper and one exploded too close to him, throwing him backwards. He almost fell off the building but Celia caught him by wrapping him up in paper (like a mummy!). The Paper-powered Conduit hadn't noticed that I was even there and I took as much advantage as I could. I gathered as much cryoenergy in both hands as I could. Hopefully, I'd be able to freeze her and free Delsin in one shot. I decided to free Delsin first so I threw an ice-shard at the paper and it cut open around his arm. Celia turned around, startled... What, she didn't expect the guy who was chasing her with Delsin to be a problem? Delsin pulled his arm free and shot a Phosphor beam at Celia - somehow switching back to Neon - that blasted her backwards and stuck her to the ground with harmless lasers. Celia struggled against her bonds but stopped when I added my own icy restraints. Delsin was still having a bit of trouble with the paper so I helped him out of it when I heard a scarily familiar voice.

"I told you to wait for me, Celia." Delsin got up and we both whirled around to see a woman floating in the air. She was wearing a black trenchcoat that trailed half a meter below her feet. Her hair was deep blue and flowed down to her waist and her eyes glowed ice-white. He face was almost white, apart from the sparkling blue makeup that matched her eyes. In her hands was what looked like blue and white flames. Cryoenergy. _Holy shit! _Lucy Kuo.

* * *

**Alright guys, tell me what you thought about that chapter. I was meant to introduce Kuo later on in the fic but, halfway through writing this chapter, I decided to put her in the end of this one. Originally, I didn't plan on having Kuo in this fic at all, but there's this one guest who always comments on fanfics saying something like "Bring back Lucyy. LUCY KUO!" so this is mainly to satisfy that guy. Sorry I took a while to publish this chapter, I'm actually writing another fic for The Inheritance Cycle and I want to pay more attention to that. Check it out if you want. I'm hoping to make updates more regular from now on probably every week or two. Bye for now... mwahaha!  
Oreo.**


	8. IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE: MUST READ!

**IMPORTANT: MUST READ!**

**ATTENTION ALL READERS! I'm really sorry for being idle for so long but I have a lot on my plate with GCSEs and prep for NaNoWriMo 2014. **

******I am currently writing Chapter 8 (9 if you include this note) for 'The Second Kessler' but it is going quite slowly.**

**HOWEVER! I have not been completely idle. In fact I've been rigorously planning a series of inFAMOUS fics which will be AWESOME.**

**I've already posted the first chapter of 'Glass and Hellfire' and two chapters of 'The Library of New-Marais'.**

**What I'm planning to do is intertwine these two fics into 'The Second Kessler'.**

**For example, 'The Library of New-Marais' explains how Kuo is still alive, even after the Cole activated the RFI and 'Glass and Hellfire' tells the story from a completely different point of view and has (VERY) mutual characters with 'The Second Kessler'.**

**So definitely read and review those other fics if you want to fully understand the story of 'The Second Kessler'**

**There's going to be a LOT of awesomeness and BAMFness coming in later chapters and I just can't wait to write it but please don't get crabby if I'm slow... I do, after all have exams. Someone wrote a review threatening to kill me if I cannot continue this. To that person I say: *BEEEEEP*. KIDDING!**

**Leave a review about your thoughts on this project and whether or not I should actually do it and, as always...**

**Thanx and PEACE!  
Oreo**


	9. Lucy Kuo & Celia Penderghast

**Sorry I haven't updated in a while. Exams and NaNoWriMo. Tell me what you guys think about this one. It has a lot of little plot details which will develop later on in the fic. Another quick announcement: I've read a lot of review from other inFAMOUS fics and noticed that a lot of you guys have been asking for the return of some awesome characters from inFAMOUS and inFAMOUS 2. Well, I was planning to bring back Reggie in this fic but tbh I can't really see that happening. So instead I've planned out a detailed sub plot including either Nix or Sasha. BUT I only want to include one of them, so if any of you are interested then leave a review saying who you'd rather have return.**

**Thanx and PEACE!  
Oreo**

* * *

"You take blue-lady, I'll get Celia's powers." Delsin told me.

I ran towards Kuo and ice-launched myself up to her, creating a blast of cold air to elevate me even higher. Kuo swooped to one side and shot a stream of scarily sharp ice shards at me. I blunted the edges a split second before they hit me but they still hurt a lot and threw me back to the roof. I quickly got back up just in time to ice launch myself away from a paper sword that probably would have killed me. I glanced at Delsin and saw that he was having trouble with Celia. He was fast, but she was faster; she had created a pair of paper angel-wings (why wasn't any of this in the game?) which were a lot more practical than they looked and whenever he would try to grab her, she'd fly out of his reach and attack from afar. I felt a sudden disturbance in the air and dived out of the way, just in time to dodge a giant boulder of ice. I created a thick ice-shield to try and block another boulder but Kuo shot a bolt of cryoenergy which completely shattered it, allowing the boulder to smash into me. The force knocked me backwards and I almost fell off the building but I managed to maneuver mid-air and, in panic, created a new ice construct - a long chain with a sharp hook on one end - to grab onto the edge and swing back onto the roof. I swung the chain in a wide arc, aiming for Kuo, but the stronger Conduit, again, shattered my construct with a casual wave of her hand. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Delsin getting knocked back by a heavy paper hammer thrown by Celia. The paper-powered Conduit raised her hand and I knew that Delsin wouldn't be able to block her attack so I hastily created a wall of ice between the two of them... But I wasn't paying attention to Kuo. She threw a thick, jagged piece of ice, roughly the size of a small car, at me. I only saw it when it was a few meters away. Raising my hands, I attempted to stop, or at least slow the ice but Kuo's power over it was stronger than mine. It hit me so hard that it broke into pieces and I was sent flying into the air. I landed centimetres away from the edge of the roof and my vision started to go out of focus. _Shit_. I just about had enough conscience to call a bolt of cryo from the sea.

_Today would be nice _I think. The silky voice doesn't reply but I could tell that the energy was speeding towards me. Delsin launched himself at Celia with a pillar of concrete but she knocked him back to the ground with a giant paper fist and he landed close to me.

"This ain't working," I manage to mumble.

"I didn't notice" He replied sarcastically, "We need to change our game-plan."

"How about we swap dance partners?"

"You just read my mind." Delsin's eyes twinkled in a smirk that never reached his lips. He jumped up and smoke-dashed towards Kuo. She wasn't expecting it and wasn't fast enough to stop the Phosphor Beam that followed. It hit her directly in the chest and she fell to the ground, dazed but obviously not seriously injured. I wanted to help but I was practically paralyzed with pain.

_Come on. Come ON! _I begged the cryoenergy. A streak of white fire shot towards me and I absorbed the energy, gratefully replenished. Springing to my feet, I shot blunt projectiles at Celia, just as she was about to help Kuo. One hit her in the thigh and the others tore apart her wings. She fell to the ground but landed on her feet, definitely a lot more experienced than I thought she'd be, and launched a dozen hardened paper shards at me, which I easily blocked with a thick ice-shield. She kept turning into flying strips of paper to easily evade my attacks and materialized only to give enough time to attack me but by the time I had even realised where she was, she had turned back into paper. I wasn't going to risk creating a blizzard in case Kuo used it against me, so instead I encased myself in a icy cocoon to block off her attacks. I was planning to wait until Celia got close, then I'd explode my cocoon. But she had other things on mind. I could see easily through my defense and, to my horror, saw Celia joining the fight against Delsin, which Kuo had been losing. I smashed open the top of the cocoon and ice-launched out. Twisting my body in the air to get a good shot, I threw an ice-grenade between Celia and Delsin - creating a long wall between them. She whirled around to face me again, expecting me to be at a good distance away for her to have the advantage, but I had already ice-launched myself even closer and tried to punch her. She easily blocked it and countered with a round-house kick. I sidestepped and returned with my own side-kick - which she blocked with an elbow - and I followed with a backfist, aiming for her face.

And that's when I found out I wasn't even a normal _Conduit_.

Celia blocked my punch with her hand and our skin touched. My arm exploded in pain and the Paper-Conduit started screaming. We tried to pull our hands away from each other but some force was keeping them together. It felt like being electrocuted, suffocated and burned all at the same time. I couldn't breath. I heard a male's scream along with Celia's. Was that Delsin's voice? No, mine. Then the world went black.

I opened my eyes and noticed that I was looking at the night-sky. I hastily tried springing to my feet but had to get up slowly because I was feeling unnaturally dizzy. Celia was on the ground, regaining consciousness, and Delsin and Kuo were still locked in battle. I noticed that Kuo was only defending, not trying to hurt Delsin. _What's going on? _I tried to break up the fight by creating an ice barrier between the two of them but nothing happened. _Crap! _

Celia got up and threw a paper blade at me. I tried stepping out of the way... and ended up five metres away. She glared at me furiously and, with a yell, threw more blades. I tried stepping out of the way again and - again - ended up a lot further away then I had intended. This went on for a few minutes, me easily evading Celia's attacks with this newfound power. It felt as if the wind was pushing me in the direction I wanted to go. But when I stopped and tried to freeze her, nothing happened. _Why isn't my Cryokinesis working?_ I quickly dodged another one of Celia's projectiles just as Delsin floored Kuo with a Concrete Punch. I dodged around Celia one more time and, acting on gut-instinct, thrust my hands towards her - deliberately not trying to use Cryo. The sound of rustling paper was followed by bright white strips of paper shooting out of my arms and streaking towards her. They would have hit her in the chest if a bright laser hadn't burnt them into ashes. I looked down at my arms and noticed that paper strips were swirling around them. So... Am I like Delsin now? Able to absorb powers from other Conduits?

"Celia, stop." I heard Kuo say. I turned around to see that she had stopped fighting Delsin and was standing up. Delsin was staring at me in surprise.

"So you're Delsin Rowe." Kuo said looking at me.

"No." Celia replied before I could. Delsin looked pretty pissed off. "That's Delsin." She said, pointing at him.

"How are you sure?"

"Well, if he was an imposter then this other kid would have deactivated his powers if they touched."Delsin seemed confused by their conversation and the two of us just stood on the side, listening but hardly understanding. Delsin interrupted them.

"Why don't I absorb Celia's powers to prove it?" He tried to sound innocent, as if his only intention was to help.

"That won't work," Celia answered.

"Why not?" He asked. Instead of giving him an explanation, she reached her hand out for Delsin to touch and when he did, nothing happened. He grunted in disappointment. "Wait a second," He faced Kuo, "Celia already knew what I look like so why didn't you just ask her-"

"I had to make sure that you were really Delsin Rowe," Kuo interrupted, "You could have been one of the Converted working for the First Sons." She added cryptically.

"What are 'Converted'?" Delsin asked, "And who the fuck are 'First Sons'?"

"I'll explain later," Kuo turned to me, "Before that, I heard you had a Blast Core and a Dead Drop."

"The SD card was a Dead Drop?" I asked.

"No way!" Delsin quickly intervened, "You are going to explain _EVERYTHING_ before we go any further."

"Okay." Kuo sighed. She and Celia exchanged a knowing look and she added, "But first we need a place to rest. I came a long way to find you, Delsin."

"How do I know I can trust you?" He asked with a sarcastic smirk. Kuo thought for a few seconds before taking out her phone and dialling a number. She held the phone to her ear.

"It's Kuo. We found Delsin Rowe. Yes, he's genuine. He doesn't trust us and I don't really blame him. Yes, I _do_ expect you to convince him." She handed the phone to Delsin.

"Explain." Delsin demanded. A tinny voice started talking to him from the other side, "Wait. Wait... You're that guy... Raymond Wolfe got me to talk to you!" He listened to the person speak for a couple of minutes before hanging up and giving the phone back to Kuo.

"Who was it?" I asked.

"I don't know his name. But I trust him" Delsin replied before turning to the other two Conduits, "You guys can stay at the House. Rest for a bit and then you'll explain what's going on."

* * *

Fetch had already prepared a huge dinner that we would never had finished ourselves so Kuo and Celia got some of her laser-cooked casserole. During the fight, I hadn't really had much time to examine the two of them but now I noticed that they had dark eye-bags - they looked like they hadn't slept for days. Fetch noticed too and showed them both to their rooms before asking Delsin to come to sleep with her. He shook his head.

"We need to find Core-Relays for Ash." Delsin said to her.

"I don't need them now, Delsin," I intervened, "We can wait until tomorrow."

"No we can't. You don't know how to use Paper and can't use Ice until Paper is developed enough. If Kessler finds out where we are and decides to pay us a surprise visit, you'll die." He said viciously. "And the funeral's tomorrow anyway so we won't have much time."

"Alright," I sighed.

Just as we were about to leave, Delsin's phone started to ring. He answered it and went into the kitchen before having a conversation. When he finished and returned from the kitchen, he put on his jacket and walked out of the House, with me in tow.


End file.
